Despite impressive successes in controlling or eliminating bacterial infections by antibiotics, the widespread use of antibiotics both in human medicine and as a feed supplement in poultry and livestock production has led to drug resistance in many pathogenic bacteria. Systematic incorporation of mutations in the protein dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is one mechanism microbes acquire resistance to antibiotics. The appearance of antibiotic resistance in many pathogenic bacteria, in many cases involving multi-drug resistance, has raised the specter of a pre-antibiotic era in which many bacterial pathogens are simply untreatable by medical intervention. Various drug resistant bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) and penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (PRSP) have been emerging in recent years.
Patients who are infected with such drug resistant bacteria have limited treatment options. Moreover, the emergence of multi-drug resistant bacteria is of serious concern worldwide as they cause intractable infectious diseases.
Thus, there is a need to identify compounds which can act as antibacterials, and more importantly, which can combat the rising incidences of drug-resistant bacterial infections.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide compounds with antibacterial activity, which can be used to combat drug resistant bacterial infections.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide compounds with antibacterial activity, which can be used to treat bacterial infections acquired as a result of a hospital stay.